Risk-Benefit Assessment in foods: a case study involving mycotoxins

Over the last years, the contamination of different foodstuffs with multiple mycotoxins has been highly reported. Data from a recent Portuguese national project that studied the toxic effects of exposure of children under 3 years old to multiple mycotoxins in infant foods (MYCOMIX) reported the co-occurrence of twenty-one mycotoxins and metabolites present in breakfast cereals primarily marketed for children. This study showed that almost all of the analyzed breakfast cereal samples (96%) were contaminated with mycotoxins. The output of this project also highlighted the knowledge gaps on the contra-balance beneficial health effect of these foods, and the need to determine the risk-benefit balance, since the evaluated food products, namely breakfast cereals, are simultaneously recognized vehicles of food components, like nutrients, vitamins and water soluble and insoluble fibers, which could be assumed as beneficial for children health. Health risks associated with consumption of cereal-based foods, an important source of nutrients with beneficial health effects, could increase in the near future due to climate changes in Europe (dry conditions and increased ambient temperatures) thus the dissemination and use of the Risk-Benefit Assessment (RBA) harmonized tools in Europe would be of utmost importance to support food and health policies. Can we ever have a harmonized tool that enables food and health authorities to estimate the balance between risk and benefit of foods usually contaminated by mycotoxins, as cereals-based products? is a question that can be raised in an attempt to contribute to brainstorm under the topic of the 10th Conference of the World Mycotoxin Forum. “RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen the risk-benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach” (Grant Agreement Number GP/EFSA/AFSCO/2017/01 - GA02) is a recent European pilot project funded by EFSA and coordinated by Portugal (PT), integrating a multidisciplinary team from health and food institutes, national food safety authorities, R&D institutions and academia from PT, Denmark (DK) and France (FR). The main objectives of RiskBenefit4EU concerns the development of a set of RBA tools that can estimate the overall health effects of foods, food ingredients and diets and that can be applied to data from different countries. RiskBenefit4EU aims to strengthen the EU capacity to assess and integrate food risks and benefits in the areas of microbiological, nutritional and chemical components through the development of a harmonized framework. This pilot project will validate the RBA framework created using a Portuguese case study on breakfast cereals, including results obtained under MYCOMIX project.

To financial support under “RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen the risk-benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach” (Grant Agreement Number GP/EFSA/AFSCO/2017/01 - GA02). Projeto Incentivo de Estudos de Biomonitorização Humana de Âmbito Nacional /BioMAN, BioMAN/DAN/01), by INSA and CESAM by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (UID/AMB/50017/2013) are also acknowledged.

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